One last high school goal… please let it come true.

In 2009, the Albany City School District created a Hall of Fame to honor those public high school students who have excelled post-graduation, and administrative staff (principals, teachers, etc.) who have guided these young minds on to greatness.

The Hall of Fame accepts nominations for candidates associated with Albany’s public high schools, past and present. However, in the past the Hall has only accepted candidates associated with Albany High School and the old Philip Schuyler High School, the latter merging with AHS in the 1970’s. They have never accepted any student candidates from my old high school, Street Academy / Harriet Gibbons High School – even though SA/HGHS’ existence for 40 years as a public high school in the Albany City School District fulfills the induction criteria. They did induct SA/HGHS physical education teacher Milton Horne, although Mr. Horne was involved in various other high schools throughout the area, not just SA/HGHS exclusively. He was also a graduate of Philip Schuyler High School, which I guess the Hall of Fame Committee thought was more important than his association with SA/HGHS.

Now granted, the Albany City School District and I haven’t been on good speaking terms of late. I’ve decried the School District’s lack of support for Street Academy / Harriet Gibbons High School, to the point where in June 2010 the Board of Education unceremoniously and bluntly shut the school down as a cost-cutting measure. But I was still hoping against hope that they would at least acknowledge my high school’s history and its successes by considering some members of my school as inductees into the Hall of Fame.

There were so many people involved with this school. Sister Maryellen Harmon, who with the novitiate of the Kenwood Academy of the Sacred Heart, partnered with Albany’s chapter of the Urban League to create the school in 1969. Harriet Gibbons and Lillian Tillman-DeWitt and Gerald Guzik and Edward Trant and Anthony Clement, the principals who guided all those impressionable minds out of strife and into life. All the teachers and guidance counselors who worked above and beyond the call of duty to make the school a place of learning and of safety. And the students – LaRodd Graves and Jennifer Jeffers and Nikki Holt and Keith Crayon and all the others who achieved what nobody thought was possible for them.

Someone from this school needs to be the first in the door – and to hold the door open for the rest to enter as well.

So I downloaded an application and filled out the pertinent information.

And right from the onset, the doubts started creeping in. Previously, the Hall of Fame application forms only listed selectable options of affiliation from Albany High or from Philip Schuyler; the application forms would later provide “Other” as an alternative choice. That’s like going into a Baskin-Robbins and being offered ice cream choices of chocolate, vanilla or “other.” Not a fan of being called “other.” It makes me sound like I’m on an uncharted Pacific island and trying to stop Jack and Kate and Sawyer from finding out what’s going on.

Still, the Hall of Fame Committee would spend this February deliberating over potential worthy candidates, with a presentation at the next Board meeting in March 2011.

And I thought to myself, there has to be more to tell than just my school winning three times on a local quiz show. I’ve told that story many times. And as regular blog reader D357 notes, maybe a time too many. So there has to be something else to say.

I kept thinking about all the treasures I saved from the school, all the “rescue raids” that I undertook last year when the building was about to close forever. All the yearbooks saved. All the graduation photos saved. All the archives saved. These were important parts of school history. And now they’re safely at the Albany Institute of History and Art, where those treasures are forever preserved. I just recently received a letter from Tammis Groft, the Deputy Director for Collections and Exhibitions, thanking me for donating the materials to the Institute. “It is a remarkable story, a significant collection, and thanks to your efforts they will be preserved and made accessible to the community for years to come,” she wrote in a letter of acknowledgment.

I packed all this information into a manila folder. I included newspaper clippings and photographs and copies of published articles and a listing of awards, both professional and personal. It was a curriculum vitae. Several people – including one of my magazine editors, one of my employers, and the Chief Executive Officer of the Premier Basketball League – sent letters of personal and professional recommendation.

I filled out the application form to the best of my ability. And I sent the application form, along with the accompanying documents, to the Hall of Fame Committee.

And now I wait. And as the February 1st deadline passed and the calendar traveled into March, the personal doubts crept in. Like doubts always do.

I thought about whether the Hall of Fame was really an Albany High School Hall of Fame, and that perhaps my desire to see someone from SA/HGHS enshrined was about as fragile as a soap bubble on a pincushion.

I can’t look at the few successes I’ve recently achieved without the raging failures pounding on my psyche like a jackhammer symphony. It’s too easy to ignore the present when one starts on the path of self-loathing. Is it fair? Heck, life stopped being “fair” a long time ago.

And what have I accomplished in my life? Has anything I achieved in 47 years been worth enshrinement in any Hall of Fame? Anything? Or am I on some quixotic quest, a dreamer of an impossible dream? Could that voice I heard during my operation have been correct after all?

March rolled into April. No word from the Hall of Fame Committee. Nothing. It felt as silent as the last heartbeat.

Saturday afternoon, April 9. I went to my mailbox – let’s see, cell phone bill, cable television bill, letter from the City School District of Albany, car insurance bill, coupon from Valvoline, my subscription to Popular Photography –

Wait a sec.

I flipped the envelopes back. Did that say – yes it did – City School District of Albany.

Oh Lord. It’s the answer regarding the Hall of Fame.

I don’t want to open it. I try sneaking a peek through the envelope by holding it up to a light. No luck. Can’t make out anything inside the envelope that way.

The envelope is too thin. I don’t know if the enclosed letter is personalized or a mimeographed rejection letter. That’s never a good sign.

So what’s in here? Acceptance or rejection? Yay or nay?

I want to open the envelope. And I don’t want to open the envelope.

I slowly tear the back flap open. The paper is inside. I don’t want to pull out the paper.

Okay, Chuck, be a man. What’s the worst that could happen? They reject you? You’ve been rejected before. Hell, remember back in school when you asked Debbie Heidrich on a date and she told you “NO” before you could even say the words “on a date”? It can’t hurt worse than that. So just open the envelope.

I slowly pull the paper out of the envelope. It’s tri-folded. I lift open the first fold.

And I read the letter.

Mr. Miller, Congratulations! This letter is to inform you that you have been selected for induction into the City School District of Albany’s HALL OF FAME!! You are one of eight inductees who will represent the class of 2011…

Oh my God.

Oh my God oh my God oh my God.

I got in.

I GOT IN!

I GOT IN THE ALBANY CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT HALL OF FAME!!!!!!!

(dancing around the room)

(still dancing around the room)

(you guys can wait a few moments, I’m not finished dancing around the room)

I continued to read the letter. It gave the dates for induction weekend, which would include the eight inductees as part of Albany High School’s Homecoming Parade, a banquet at the Polish Community Center, and mention at the Albany High School football game at Bleecker Stadium. Wow wow sixty thousand times wow.

Then I saw this passage in the letter.

The Hall of Fame is representative of the entire school district community, including the performing arts, athletics, pedagogy, entrepreneurship and graduates of Philip Schuyler and Albany High Schools as well as the alternative high schools. This is a wonderful way for the district to recognize and honor the people who have made significant contributions to the school and community by way of their accomplishments!

And just like that, I felt vindication. The school district acknowledged that qualified candidates from the alternative high schools – Street Academy, Harriet Gibbons High School, the Adult Learning Center, Abrookin Vo-Tec – would be considered for future induction classes. Thus making it a TRUE school district Hall of Fame.

My sincere thanks to all the members of the Selection Committee; this is an honor I will treasure forever; and I hope that this becomes the first of many students and teachers from the alternative schools to receive enshrinement into the Hall of Fame.

From the Hall of Fame website: REQUIREMENTS
“Nominees must exemplify the highest standards of ethical conduct and moral character.”
It’s a good thing the reviewing committee wasn’t playing trivia at the Elbo Room last February.

I’ll admit, I don’t follow this blog very religiously, so I was confused as to why anyone cares this much about high school 30 years after graduating? And I also thought it was kind of weird that you nominated yourself. But if it makes you happy, congratulations.

Ok, Cassie…but I DIDN’T say anything nasty or call anyone names. That was Aunt Roz. Despite that, I will still be nominating her for the Commenter Hall of Fame next year. I would do it this year…but I’ve already nominated myself.